Gang leader arrested in fatal shooting of U.S. official

A U.S. consular that was slain back in March was targeted because she was giving out visas to rivals, according to Jesus Ernesto Chavez, the leader of a Ciudad Juarez street gang.

Chavez was arrested on Friday for ordering the fatal shooting attack on the U.S. consular worker in the border town back in March. Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, was killed because she was providing visas to rivals, according to federal police.

Authorities also say that Chavez, 41, told them that he took part in a January shooting that targeted a teen party, the shooting left 15 people dead and raised an outcry in Mexico over the runaway violence.

Chavez is the leader of the Aztecas, according to Ramon Pequeno who is in charge of the anti-drug division of the federal police. The Aztecas are a deadly gang that has members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The street gang is also allied with Juarez cartel.

La Linea is known as the cartel’s armed wing and Chavez said that the wing ordered the killing because she was providing visas to group of members who were rivals.

Officials in the U.S. say that Enriquez worked in the U.S. citizen’s services section which does not deal with visas. Enriquez was pregnant when she and her husband were slain as they drove away from a birthday party in Ciudad Juarez. The couple’s daughter who was an infant was left crying but unharmed in the backseat.

A Mexican employee’s husband was also killed leaving the same party as he left in a separate vehicle. He was shot because the hit men targeted his vehicle because it was the same color as Enriquez’s vehicle and they were not sure which one she was traveling in.

The Aztecas launched the attack on the teen party because they thought that members of a rival gang were going to be there, but they mistaken.

The leader of the Aztecas was in prison before on drug-dealing charges and was released after 5 years. He was also arrested in 2008 by Mexican soldiers on drug charges but was freed.